Girl Jamaica Kincaid Analysis Essay

Feminism in “Two Kinds” and “Girl”

Both “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan display themes about feminism and what it’s like to be raised by an authoritative mother as a susceptible girl, but each sets different terms for what it means to be a woman. These works both have a mother-daughter relationship that are full of dispute and the push to be excellent, all while coming from a loving place. In the poem “Girl”, the authors mother is teaching her ways to be a woman. The mother is telling the daughter how to do stereotypical feminine tasks. These included pleasing a man, making tradition meals, and doing housework like mending clothes and cleaning. Another issue present in this poem is the issue of promiscuity in woman. The mother in this poem is convinced that her daughter is becoming a slut when she doesn’t follow the rules, and reprimands her to avoid the situation. Feminism is the largest theme in this poem, as the main focus of this poem is what the correct way to act is as a woman in this culture.

The mother in “Two Kinds” pushes her daughter to excel in things from being a Shirley Temple to a world class pianist. The mother is intent on

They feature girls who are being raised by mothers with generational and cultural differences, which causes them to be raised in a stricter way than the readers today, are used to. The mothers in both stories are aggressive in their pressure, and this causes conflict in the mother daughter relationship. The largest difference in these stories is how the woman are raised in their society. In these stories, both of the mothers have taken their previous life experience They both are feminist stories, but in different ways. There are very different roles expected of these young girls. One story displays a stereotypical woman roles and one story displays an over bearing mother who is teaching her daughter to